The present invention is concerned with a novel therapeutic composition and a method of therapeutically treating warm-blooded animals therewith. In one of its more specific variants, the invention further relates to certain novel ethereal monosubstitutions of monosaccharide derivatives which are especially useful as ingredients in the aforementioned compositions and in practicing the aforementioned method.
Many diseases caused by certain living microorganisms may be treated very effectively by administering a therapeutically effective amount of an antibiotic. However, antibiotics are not effective in the treatment of virus infections insofar as suppressing the proliferation of the virus particles and reducing cell damage are concerned.
A number of substances other than antibiotics have been proposed heretofore for use in treating virus infections, but they have not been used extensively for a number of reasons. For instance, the previously proposed antiviral agents usually exhibit very low antiviral activity and have little positive effect on the course of the viral infection. The previously proposed antiviral drugs also have not been effective in the treatment of a wide spectrum of virus infections and this has been a major disadvantage. The therapeutic treatment of a large number of patients having undetermined viral infections of widely differing types is impractical with the narrow spectrum prior art antiviral drugs, as it is too difficult to determine the exact virus causing the infection and then select an effective drug. Many potentially effective antiviral drugs are toxic and cannot be safely administered to patients, and still other antiviral drugs have undesirable side effects. As a result of the foregoing and other deficiencies, it is apparent that an entirely satisfactory wide spectrum nontoxic antiviral drug has not been available heretofore for routinely administering to patients having a viral infection caused by many of the common viruses.
It has been discovered that certain ethereal monosubstitutions of monosaccharide derivatives provide important biological signals which allow living cells to resist virus infections. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the signals also provide other types of control in cell chemistry.
The therapeutic compositions of the invention overcome the disadvantages of the prior art antiviral agents noted above, and also produce other unusual and unexpected results. For example, the ethereal monosubstitutions of monosaccharide derivatives described hereinafter are therapeutically effective at very low concentrations, while at the same time they exhibit no side effects and are very nontoxic. The ratio of the minimum toxic to therapeutic dose is greater than 50 in both tissue culture and animals.
The antiviral compounds and the therapeutic compositions containing the same disclosed and claimed in my earlier filed copending application Ser. No. 337,134 possess striking antiviral properties and are highly effective in the treatment of a wide variety of viral infections in warm blooded animals. Nevertheless, the earlier described antiviral compounds and therapeutic composition do have certan limitations and disadvantages which are over come by the present invention. For example, the earlier described compounds possess strong hydrophilic properties due to the presence of a plurality of free hydroxyl groups which result in several limitations on the effective use thereof in situ including short shelf life, variability of the stability in solution as a function of temperature, and extreme hygroscopicity.
The compounds of the present invention have been found to be more desirable with respect to the properties listed above. This is presently believed to be the direct result of a decrease in the hydrophilic properties and, thereby, an increase in the solubility of the compounds in the fatty tissues of a warm-blooded animal which has been therapeutically treated therewith. This technique also aids in the transportation of the drug to a desired tissue or the concentration thereof in a desired tissue. In the practice of one variant of the invention, an organic substituent is selected which blocks at least one free monosaccharide hydroxyl group and thereby decreases the hydrophilic properties and allows the compound to be transported or concentrated in fatty tissues. In a further variant, a labile organic substituent is selected which may be removed in vivo during treatment of the warm-blooded animal after it has served its purpose, thereby unblocking the hydroxyl group (s).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a therapeutic composition including a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and a therapeutically effective amount of certain ethereal monosubstitutions of monosaccharide derivatives to be described more fully hereinafter.
It is a further object to provide certain novel compounds to be described more fully hereinafter, which are ethereal monosubstitutions of monosaccharide derivatives exhibiting striking antiviral activity and/or other therapeutically valuable properties.
It is still a further object to provide a therapeutic composition containing one or more of the novel monosaccharide derivatives of the invention.
It is still a further object to provide a method of therapeutically treating a warm-blooded animal wherein the above described therapeutic composition and/or novel monosaccharide derivatives are administered thereto in a therapeutically effective amount.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description.